Painting Hope for the Human Race: A Metaphor Analysis of 'The Weight of Glory'

This analysis of C. S. Lewis' notable essay that I wrote as an undergraduate for my Communication Criticism class has been foundational to my passion for communication. I discovered that in analysis, we discover insights not only into the rhetor’s own meanings, but also into the grand scheme of the universe. Our communication often reveals a glimmer of the divine brushstroke that lines the cry of every heart for pleasure and purpose.

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Not very often do modern works assessing the human condition paint a convincing picture of hope for man’s future and a consummation of his inmost desires. C. S. Lewis does this brilliantly, however, in his famous essay The Weight of Glory. Lewis, in his masterful style, addresses this important topic of the foundational and often illusive longings of the human heart for divine transcendence in a way that expresses hope and the plausibility of good triumphing over evil. He does this through poignant affirmation of the deep psychological desires of man and the use of thematic illustrations and analogies. The skills to communicate the human condition in a positive and hopeful light with the expectation that good will triumph over evil are excellent rhetorical tools for a plethora of situations, from national disasters to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings to church gatherings. A review of the critical method and an overview of the artifact are presented here, followed by the critical analysis.

Method and Artifact

The method to be used in this analysis is metaphor criticism. Metaphor criticism is a type of analysis whereby an artifact is scrutinized for insights based upon the metaphors found therein. Foss (2009) explains that four steps are taken in this method: “(1) examining the artifact for a general sense of its dimensions and context; (2) isolating the metaphors in the artifact; (3) sorting the metaphors into groups according to vehicle or tenor; and (4) discovering an explanation for the artifact” (p. 272). A metaphor contains a tenor and a vehicle; the tenor is the item being described and the vehicle is the assigned description (Foss, 2009, p. 267). Metaphor criticism is an important kind of criticism because it deals in depth with symbolic communication and how we allow words and phrases to build and shape our own reality.

The Weight of Glory was a sermon delivered by C. S. Lewis on June 8, 1941 at the Oxford University Church of St. Mary the Virgin and is one of his well-known essays. This work encapsulates the idea of the human desire for the eternal. In essence, Lewis (1949) employs many metaphors and visual illustrations to tell the story of humanity’s longing, what he calls “the inconsolable secret,” and their struggles against worldliness to achieve it (p. 29). This is obviously a Christian piece of work, and Lewis climaxes the piece with a description of the weight of glory upon a man being nothing less than the love and approval of God (p. 39).

Analysis

An analysis of the metaphors in The Weight of Glory shows how a rhetor like Lewis can carry an optimistic, encouraging message about the deep nature of man. The first of the two points to be made revolves around the metaphorical vehicles surrounding the recurring tenor of the human longing, or this “inconsolable secret.” Secondly, Lewis’ illustrations and analogies, or creative metaphors, for which he is well-known, are examined for their obvious visual intensity in the framing of his theme of good triumphing over evil.

The human longing for the transcendent is the core of Lewis’ essay. He paints a strikingly accurate picture of the human experience through the use of many metaphorical vehicles that give this foundational tenor a deep perspective. This is the psychological affirmation that Lewis offers to those on this introspective journey. He begins with more abstract vehicles such as the “shy, persistent, inner voice,” “the scent of a flower we have not found, the echo of a tune we have not heard, news from a country we have never visited,” “Nostalgia and Romanticism and Adolescence,” and merely beauty (Lewis, 1949, pp. 30, 31). Then he moves onward, suggesting that part of the answer to these desires is glory, or the need to be noticed, affirmed, and delighted in by the one we were made to please—God (p. 37). As he continues on, Lewis’ metaphors for the human longing grow more specific, including such vehicles as “to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become a part of it,” “to drink joy from the fountain of joy,” “the healing of that old ache,” and perhaps most poignantly,

To please God . . . to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness . . . to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son—it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain. (pp. 39, 42, 44)

Lewis expresses with such poignancy the human experience of the curious desire for perfection through different metaphorical imagery and in doing so relays a sense of encouragement because he is identifying and affirming the often unmentioned and unidentified yearnings of the soul. He speaks of them as good, as indicators of God’s work, and as encouragements to seek their fulfillment.

Moreover, Lewis’ visual illustrations and colorful analogies are some of his strongest metaphors, and they point to his hope in the triumph of good over evil. These creative metaphors span various tenors but the vehicles portray at least one common theme—fairy tale. Concerning his discussion on the otherworldly longing, Lewis (1949) says,

Do you think I am trying to weave a spell? Perhaps I am; but remember your fairy tales. Spells are used for breaking enchantments as well as inducing them. And you and I have need of the strongest spell that can be found to wake us from the evil enchantment of worldliness that has been laid upon us for nearly a hundred years. (p. 31)

Here, Lewis makes a fairy tale a metaphor for life—we are under the enchantment of worldliness until we can be rescued. Similarly, though not technically fantasy-themed, the metaphoric illustration of the schoolboy learning Greek teaches that while the Christian’s motives may be forced at first, as he continues to grow, the more he will become transformed by desire over stoic obedience, and he will reap the fruits of his labor (Lewis, 1949, pp. 27-29). Along with the fantasy imagery comes the assumption of the fairy tale happy ending and the prevailing of good over evil. Other illustrations include fairy tale-like components, such as nature settings, marriage, war, and a “far-off country” (Lewis, 1949, p. 26-31).

Conclusion

In Lewis’ (1949) words, “Some day, God willing, we shall get in” (p. 43). Lewis (1949) believed firmly in the hope for humankind to at last find the grace to satisfy our “lifelong nostalgia, our longing to be reunited with something in the universe from which we now feel cut off, to be on the inside of some door which we have always seen from the outside” (p. 42). He brought this hope to others, not merely through his explicit verbal messages but also through the subtleties of his metaphors, from the different vehicles describing human longing that affirm our deep desires to the visual illustrations that speak nonverbally to the idea of good triumphing over evil. Lewis provides an excellent example of a rhetor who utilizes language to paint a hopeful and encouraging picture of the human pursuit of transcendence. A rhetor may leverage similar techniques across many cultures and time periods and for countless circumstances and purposes, because this metanarrative-level message is an important communication of truth that will never be out of season.

References

Foss, S. K. (2009). Rhetorical criticism: Exploration and practice (4th ed.). Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, Inc.

Lewis, C. S. (1949). The weight of glory: And other addresses. New York, NY: HarperCollins Publishers.

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